I am Sophie, a Swedish woman by birth but English by adoption. I have a little mud hotel in the beautiful and ancient West African town of Djenne, Mali. WWW.HOTELDJENNEDJENNO.COM Because of unstable political
situation, tourism has ground to a halt. Hotel still open! But hotel staff mainly working in Bogolan studio now: www.malimali.org check out our fab online shop!

Saturday, June 21, 2014

UN:"'the Time for Negotiations have arrived!"

The second
attack was delivered last Wednesday by the UN’s
deputy peace keeping secretary Hervé Ladsouswho criticised the Malian
government over its inaction with regards to the negotiations with the armed
groups of the north. Now this is more
contentious ground, and this criticism seems typical of the lazy attitude that
prevails regarding this situation. There is a real problem here: with whom are
they supposed to negotiate? It is clear that these armed groups now include strong
elements of the very Jihadists that were previously the enemy! Surely this needs to be addressed first?

In
my travels around Europe this time I have not let one opportunity slip to
question whatever high ranking French official I have come across on the
situation in the north of Mali. My friend Jeremiah invited me to a do at the Institute
Française in London where I managed to collar the French ambassador, who looked
a little taken aback as he sipped his champagne but nevertheless offered the
useless and much repeated idea “ what we want now is reconciliation”. Excuse me,
but how exactly?

My next victim was the educational attaché at the French embassy in London at
a conference on the downturn in studies of modern languages in European
universities (I was invited only because my pal Bella had organized it at the
British Academy, and there was a jolly reception afterwards) He was even more
startled at the question and refused boringly to comment since it was not his
department.

I had better luck with the
Algerian consul in Stockholm who was chitchatting with me over a coffee while
they were preparing my visa. He politely offered the idea that is the universal
attitude to the situation: The Tuaregs have been neglected by the government in
the south. They need to be heard. Therefore negotiations need to be undertaken.
Yes indeed. Everyone understands that, even the Malian government.

Abdoulaye
Diop, the Malian minister of foreign affairs explained once more the Malian
governments position to the UN: the Malian government is ready to engage in
negotiations but the groups of the north must be disarmed according to the
Ouagadougou agreement and they must take
a distance from the Jihadists.

This
does not seem to me an unreasonable request, but it is destined to fall on deaf ears. The people who matter appear to have an agenda of their own and the rest are too lazy to engage in the problem and try and undertand it.